Hancock Whitney Corp Acquires Shares of 6,634 SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB)

Hancock Whitney Corp bought a new position in shares of SouthState Co. (NASDAQ:SSB) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 6,634 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $564,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of SouthState by 544.0% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 322 shares of the bank’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in SouthState in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. TFO Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of SouthState by 13,400.0% during the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 405 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 402 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in SouthState by 8,346.7% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,267 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $107,000 after buying an additional 1,252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in SouthState in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $183,000. 89.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

SouthState Trading Down 5.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:SSB traded down $5.14 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $93.83. 387,800 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 480,697. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $80.81. SouthState Co. has a 1 year low of $63.36 and a 1 year high of $101.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market cap of $7.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.65 and a beta of 0.68.

SouthState (NASDAQ:SSB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $425.48 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $418.08 million. SouthState had a net margin of 20.84% and a return on equity of 9.31%. The company’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that SouthState Co. will post 6.64 EPS for the current year.

SouthState Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.54 per share. This is a positive change from SouthState’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.30%. SouthState’s payout ratio is 33.93%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on SSB shares. Raymond James upgraded shares of SouthState from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Stephens boosted their target price on SouthState from $88.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Hovde Group boosted their price target on SouthState from $97.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on SouthState from $95.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price target on SouthState from $95.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, SouthState presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.75.

SouthState Company Profile

SouthState Corporation operates as the bank holding company for SouthState Bank, National Association that provides a range of banking services and products to individuals and companies. It offers checking accounts, savings deposits, interest-bearing transaction accounts, certificates of deposits, money market accounts, and other time deposits, as well as bond accounting, asset/liability consulting related activities, and other clearing and corporate checking account services.